Friday, February 19, 2016

Family of Man Hit and Killed by East Cleveland Police Officer Sue Officer and City

Update: The family of 22-year-old LaShon Kimble has sued the East Cleveland police officer who struck and killed Kimble with his vehicle, along with the city.

There's plenty of issues detailed in the lawsuit and they mirror the findings reported below culled from the Ohio State Highway Patrol's investigation of the incident. Namely, that Pettus was allegedly speeding through the intersection without his sirens or lights on, that East Cleveland failed to maintain streetlights near the intersection, the vehicle driven by Officer Pettus has a broken headlight, and that no video exists of the incident because Pettus only turned on his body camera after the accident.

Update 12/21/2015: If you were curious whether and how East Cleveland is dealing with the family of LaShon Kimble, the 22-year-old struck and killed by an East Cleveland patrol car back in October, you probably wouldn't be surprised to know that the city that can't even keep its governmental website online hasn't given any answers or relief to Kimble's family.

Channel 5 caught up with his mother to talk about the sad aftermath of the incident and the joke of a city that has sat on its hands.

As you can see before in the original story, streetlights were burned out and a crosswalk wasn't painted. Those things have yet to be rectified, some two full months after the accident.

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(Original story 11/6/2015): A 26-page report completed by the Ohio State Highway Patrol detailing the circumstances and actions of East Cleveland police officer Kyle Pettus and 22-year-old Christopher LaShon Kimble on the night of October 3 show just how many things went wrong in the leadup to Pettus's cruiser hitting and killing Kimble.

Initial reports that had sirens and emergency lights flashing on the East Cleveland vehicle as it traveled through the intersection of Superior Ave. and Emily St. are now called into question, along with other assumptions made in the aftermath of the tragic accident. It seems no part of that evening was without something malfunctioning or broken or being done incorrectly.

- There's uncertainty whether Officer Pettus, 35, had his emergency lights activated or not while driving. The report now indicates a that he didn't
- Same goes for sirens
- LaShon Kimble was crossing the intersection at a diagonal
- The paint demarcating the actual crosswalks at the intersection was worn away and faded
- The 2014 Ford Taurus Officer Pettus was driving had a broken headlight
- All crosswalk signals at the intersection were broken
- Multiple street lights in the area were broken and the intersection was very dark
- The road was wet
- Officer Pettus likely didn't turn on his body camera until after the crash
- While officer Pettus had been on the East Cleveland force for a year, it was only the fourth time he was out in a squad car by himself
- While initial reports from East Cleveland police indicate the dashboard camera had malfunctioned and thus didn't catch the incident, there's uncertainty now whether Pettus simply hadn't activated the camera to begin with

Pettus remains on restricted duty. No decision on possible charges has been made.